The Importance of Training in the Workplace

There’s no way to predict the future. Whatever you do, and wherever you go, there will always be instances of an unpredictable nature. In the workplace, these can quickly become injurious, litigious, and bad for business.

Consider workman’s compensation, as a for instance. The laws vary from state to state, but almost everywhere there are protections for employees; and should an employee become injured, it’s likely your business will end up paying the bill.

The thing is, statistically, there is no way to keep accidents from happening 100% of the time. It doesn’t matter how good your operational protocols are, or how well-trained your employees are, accidents just happen. As Murphy’s Law states, anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. For this reason your approach to this issue should ultimately be one of “damage control”.

Strategies For Damage Minimization

Definitely, protocols established through time are to be recommended. If you’re a newer business, this can be difficult, as there hasn’t been enough time to establish where the pressure points are in your operations. Certainly, some activities will have safe and unsafe ways of being accomplished.

You can definitely learn from other businesses, however. You may be running a niche operation, or doing something that is entirely novel. However the likelihood is, there’s some form of business which has essentially provided the same services you do. A great example is the web log, or blog.

A blog is basically the 21st century equivalent of a magazine. It begins being popular because it has a core theme, then advertisement gloms on which provides a financial base from which the “blog”, or “magazine”, can advance. Granted, it’s not a one-to-one comparison; but the point is, if history doesn’t “repeat” itself, at the very least it “echoes” itself.

The same kind of thinking can be applied to safety as regards new and established businesses. Look at your operations, and see if they match any older businesses. Even if you think what you do is entirely uncharted territory, the likelihood is it isn’t. And, if what you’re doing is an established operation, then you’ve already got a wealth of information informing your operations.

Examples

A great example would be running a storage organization, or managing a warehouse. Such services are perpetually necessary. There has thus been a protocol established for such operations which provides for the safest progression of operations.

You’ll likely need some lifting apparatus to move materials in the warehouse. Convergence training offers forklift training videos as part of a 44-minute course designed to, in the words of Convergence, “give your forklift safety a boost.”

You’ll have employees operating such heavy equipment, and it’s not like there’s a master’s degree program in forklift operation. A safety video can be instrumental in ensuring maximum successful operations.

Another good tip is to keep tabs on operations throughout your business’s natural cycles. Whether those cycles be daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly, it’s likely patterns are going to emerge. Recognizing those patterns will save a lot of time and difficulty.

Reality

It doesn’t matter how well you prepare, there are always going to be instances where Murphy’s Law knocks your operations off the rails. But if you can train your employees in the lessons that those who have gone before have learned, you can curtail such instances substantially.
With items like the forklift, there are even directly established protocols of operation which naturally preclude their use. Whether your business is comprised of services that have been established for decades, or seem to be something new, safety protocols are to be recommended.